Performing Artists
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Show Details

Ticket Price:
$15.00-$20.00

Door Time:8:00 PM

Restrictions:21 & over

Melody Angel:Young singer-guitarist Melody Angel cites artists as diverse as Prince, Slash, Michael Jackson, and Jimi Hendrix as role models, but her style is already distinctively personal—unlike her flashy predecessors, she conveys powerful emotion through subtlety and nuance rather than pyrotechnics. Her love songs gird vulnerability with a steely resolve, and when she tackles social themes her quiet, focused urgency adds deeper resonance, whether it’s to standards like Tupac’s “Dear Mama,” classics like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” or originals like the spellbinding “In This America,” which is dedicated to “all the mothers that have lost their beautiful black sons unjustly.” “In This America” may actually be her masterwork to date: backed by tender guitar accompaniment, her voice builds from brooding melancholy to rage-choked anguish as she delivers the song’s primary verse, “How do I know it’s safe to have a son in this America?” The line is repeated over and over, and as the intensity builds with every iteration, the lyrics become part prayer, part mantra, and part call to arms. A former contestant on the P. Diddy-produced MTV talent show Starmaker, the local Angel has yet to record a full-fledged album or CD (her Facebook page says she’s currently working on her first blues album), but enough of her music is available online to reveal her as an artist of unlimited potential, with the chops and the vision to succeed in virtually any genre. —David Whiteis